BJP moves in to consolidate UP vote bank

In a major push to consolidate UP’s upper caste vote bank, particularly that of Thakurs, the BJP is likely to offer a party ticket to expelled leader Dayashankar Singh’s wife Swati from Ballia.

The BJP high command feels that Ms Singh’s strong stand against the BSP for alleged abusive slogans against her family members, including her daughter, has helped the BJP get a grip over the upper caste vote-bank which was initially tilting towards BSP supremo Mayawati as she had expanded her social rainbow. Besides Thakurs, the BJP also feels that brahmins, who had moved to the Samajwadi Party, were now returning to the BJP. The combined force of Thakurs and brahmins is nearly 21 per cent.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh Siddharth Nath Singh on Saturday refuted reports that party president Amit Shah’s visit to Agra scheduled for Sunday was cancelled because of dalit protests. “It was cancelled because the ground where he was to hold the rally is submerged because of the rains. It has nothing to do with dalit protests,” Mr Singh said.

After her husband’s expulsion, Ms Singh had taken up the cudgels against the BSP. While BJP state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya met her, the BJP high command had also spoken to her.

Ballia, a holy city for Hindus in an upper caste-dominated region, is the ancestral home of Dayashankar. Narad Rai, a Thakur, is the SP MLA from Ballia Nagar Assembly constituency. A few days ago, posters appeared in parts of Allahabad portraying Ms Singh as Goddess Durga.

Incidentally, Ms Singh is still in hospital, reportedly traumatised because of alleged threats by Ms Mayawati and her supporters. The BJP spin doctors were of the opinion that Ms Singh was not only “brilliantly articulating her grievances”, but was “getting the sympathy of the upper caste”.

The BSP was up in arms when Mr Singh called Ms Mayawati a “prostitute”. After this, the state has been witnessing politics of abuse and counter-abuse. With BSP leaders using derogatory remarks against Mr Singh’s family, the BJP tried to project it as an “insult to the upper caste” and also held protest rallies.

As for the arithmetic, BJP strategists argue that while 12 per cent of the Jatavs were “firmly” behind Ms Mayawati and the majority of Yadavs were still with the Samajwadi Party, the BJP could break the other OBCs, which include Kurmi, Lodh, Jat, Gujjar, Mallah, Teli, Kumhar, Kahar, Nai, Kachi and Gadaria. As for the Scheduled Castes, barring Jatavs, the BJP also hopes to break into Pasi, Dhobi, Kori, Balmiki and Khatik. BJP leaders claimed that the brahmin vote-bank, which had shifted to the SP, was returning to the BJP following “Yadav domination” in rural UP.